Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive visitors automatically to your website using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to start generating traffic is publish web content consistently!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we look at the configuration stage of the traffic system. You will understand why an expertly configured site is different from a professionally configured site, and just what type of work is required to make sure that when everything is fully set up and configured, you can bring web traffic automatically when you begin posting content to your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With business getting increasingly more competitive worldwide, it’s worth looking into every opportunity you can to improve your performance and results online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can be a huge advantage. For businesses, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
The Configuration Phase Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s a simple way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take additional work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a little story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Things were going well in the widget-making assembly line when the equipment suddenly stopped.
No one could figure out what went wrong and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
The expert arrived within the hour and immediately headed to the main control box. After staring at the electronic components for no more than 5 minutes, the expert then produced a teensy-weensy hammer and made a gentle tap about 1 inch from the top-left side of the control unit.
Immediately, the plant began working once again.
The floor manager was delighted as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received a bill for $5,000.
The manager called the expert, demanding to know why the expert had charged them such a ludicrous fee for less than 5 minutes work. He then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors consistently to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the business had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to get paid fairly for years spent acquiring the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to quickly repair a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your web site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networks and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
While the solution to many challenges often seems ridiculously simple once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than just installing a website and configuring a few basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts need to be set up and activated to achieve desired outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to ensure that everything will function to plan, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite complicated. The reason why is because it’s not just about installing a plugin, clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of many parts such as your web hosting server, your website, and various third-party sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If the activities involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Configuring Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings and options in your server that affect how your website will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your site can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites.
External Web Properties And Services – Configuration
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all content will be posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it will get distributed automatically to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external platforms have been added to your configuration, content linked back to your website gets automatically fed to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your business will receive exposure online, helping you tap into a whole new audience and traffic source.
Some of these external sites and solutions will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site to help speed up the process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up before configuring your WordPress settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important data, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account with Google Webmasters, use this information with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, you can add your account information to all of your pages in WordPress via a Google Analytics plugin and send data automatically to various other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account is with Bing have been set up, use the details with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic generation system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and get new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your various social media and social bookmarking accounts before you can integrate these with your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site.
Set up accounts with all the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick the ones that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail during the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your social feed.
There are various solutions that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As described in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services field
By default, this section displays only one entry …
(Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to view the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting in this section as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to instantly notify your update services list when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion
Although the settings in this section are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs linked to from your articles, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow your site to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways your permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using WP permalinks here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
WP Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that help to add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that improve traffic generation
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can significantly improve your SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google to find, classify and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you provide great content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social features to your website easily using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
You can add social sharing features to your website easily with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social share plugins allow you to select which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to configure your settings and enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can damage your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
We have written a detailed article about adding compliance pages to WordPress here:
WordPress Categories & Tags
Post tags & post categories help to improve your site’s search engine optimization, which helps you get more traffic.
(Post categories help search engines better classify and index your web pages, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be reviewed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags you have set up.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites discover your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although search engines like Google can index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your 404 Error Page
When visitors type in the wrong web address into their web browser or click on a link pointing to a page on your website that no longer exists, they will normally be presented with a 404 Not Found error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 Not Found page can redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do to automatically start generating new traffic is add fresh content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of various elements and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some web professionals months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Section 3
To continue reading about this topic, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic organically with a WordPress-driven website and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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